Summary

Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth century. His journey back in time started when he decided to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an essay on Erasmus’s evolutionary ideas…

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… There are summaries of all Darwin's letters from the year 1879 on this website. The full texts …

… 27 of the print edition of The correspondence of Charles Darwin , published by Cambridge …

… to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an …

… the sensitivity of the tips. Despite this breakthrough, when Darwin first mentioned the book to his …

… 1879 ). He was also unsatisfied with his account of Erasmus Darwin, declaring, ‘My little biography …

… a holiday in the Lake District in August did little to raise Darwin’s spirits. ‘I wish that my …

Summary

Darwin was a photography enthusiast. This is evident not only in his use of photography for the study of Expression and Emotions in Man and Animal, but can be witnessed in his many photographic portraits and in the extensive portrait correspondence that…

Matches: 14 hits

… Darwin was a photography enthusiast. This is evident not only in his use of …

… portraits and in the extensive portrait correspondence that Darwin undertook throughout his lifetime …

… was jokingly lamenting his role as an intermediary for Darwin and his correspondents from around the …

… of friends and relatives was not a pursuit unique to Darwin (the exchange of photographic images was …

Summary

In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to the movements of plants. He investigated the growth pattern of roots and shoots, studying the function of specific organs in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of…

Matches: 29 hits

… There are summaries of all Darwin's letters from the year 1878 on this website. The full texts …

… 26 of the print edition of The correspondence of Charles Darwin , published by Cambridge …

… lessen injury to leaves from radiation
In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to …

… in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of experiments to …

… plant laboratories in Europe.
While Francis was away, Darwin delighted in his role as …

… from botanical research was provided by potatoes, as Darwin took up the cause of an Irish …

… would rid Ireland of famine. Several correspondents pressed Darwin for his views on religion, …

… closed with remarkable news of a large legacy bequeathed to Darwin by a stranger as a reward for his …

Summary

1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time. And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth. All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…

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… The year 1876 started out sedately enough with Darwin working on the first draft of his book on the …

Summary

Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…

Matches: 29 hits

… There are summaries of all Darwin's letters from the year 1877 on this website. The full texts …

… 25 of the print edition of The correspondence of Charles Darwin , published by Cambridge …

… Ever since the publication of Expression , Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The …

… of these projects would culminate in a major publication. Darwin’s botany was increasingly a …

… assisted his father’s research on movement and bloom, and Darwin in turn encouraged his son’s own …

… The year 1877 was more than usually full of honours. Darwin received two elaborate photograph albums …

… from Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. Closer to home, Darwin received an honorary Doctorate of …

… sites for possible earthworm activity. Now in his 69th year, Darwin remained remarkably productive, …

Summary

‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…

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… Editions
Plants always held an important place in Darwin’s theorising about species, and …

… his periods of severe illness. Yet on 15 January 1875 , Darwin confessed to his close friend …

… way to continuous writing and revision, activities that Darwin found less gratifying: ‘I am slaving …

… bad.’
The process was compounded by the fact that Darwin was also revising another manuscript …

… coloured stamens.’
At intervals during the year, Darwin was diverted from the onerous task of …

… zoologist St George Jackson Mivart. In April and early May, Darwin was occupied with a heated …

… chapter of the controversy involved a slanderous attack upon Darwin’s son George, in an anonymous …

… on 12 January , breaking off all future communication. Darwin had been supported during the affair …

… Society of London, and a secretary of the Linnean Society, Darwin’s friends had to find ways of …

… pp. 16–17). ‘How grandly you have defended me’, Darwin wrote on 6 January , ‘You have also …

… in public. ‘Without cutting him direct’, he advised Darwin on 7 January , ‘I should avoid him, …

… & again’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 16 January 1875 ). Darwin had also considered taking up …

… , ‘I feel now like a pure forgiving Christian!’
Darwin’s ire was not fully spent, however, …

… in the same Quarterly article that attacked George. Darwin raised the matter at the end of the …

… to rest, another controversy was brewing. In December 1874, Darwin had been asked to sign a memorial …

… Hensleigh and Frances Wedgwood. She had corresponded with Darwin about the evolution of the moral …

… could not sign the paper sent me by Miss Cobbe.’
Darwin found Cobbe’s memorial inflammatory …

… memorial had been read in the House of Lords (see ' Darwin and vivisection ').
…

… medical educators, and other interested parties. Darwin was summoned to testify on 3 November. It …

Summary

The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’. Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…

Matches: 23 hits

… The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the …

… in relation to Sex’. Always precise in his accounting, Darwin reckoned that he had started writing …

… gathered on each of these topics was far more extensive than Darwin had anticipated. As a result, …

… and St George Jackson Mivart, and heated debates sparked by Darwin’s proposed election to the French …

… Finishing Descent; postponing Expression
Darwin began receiving proofs of some of the …

… ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ). Darwin was still working hard on parts of the …

… style, the more grateful I shall be’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). She had …

… , the latter when she was just eighteen years of age. Darwin clearly expected her to make a …

Summary

The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…

Matches: 25 hits

…
On 6 March 1868, Darwin wrote to the entomologist and accountant John Jenner Weir, ‘If any …

… he ought to do what I am doing pester them with letters.’ Darwin was certainly true to his word. The …

Summary

At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…

Matches: 25 hits

… At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …

… markedly, reflecting a decline in his already weak health. Darwin then began punctuating letters …

Summary

Charles and Emma Darwin’s eldest daughter, Annie, died at the age of ten in 1851. Emma was heavily pregnant with their fifth son, Horace, at the time and could not go with Charles when he took Annie to Malvern to consult the hydrotherapist, Dr Gully.…

Matches: 7 hits

… lost the joy of the Household
Charles and Emma Darwin’s eldest daughter, Annie, died at …

… to Malvern to consult the hydrotherapist, Dr Gully.
Darwin wrote a memorial of his daughter …

… her own reactions in a poignant set of notes, which Emma Darwin kept.
Links to a longer …

Summary

For all his working life, Darwin used letters as a way both of discussing ideas and gathering the ‘great quantities of facts’ that he used in developing and supporting his theories. They form a fascinating collection from many hundreds of correspondents,…

Matches: 6 hits

… do what I am doing pester them with letters.
( Darwin to John Jenner Weir, [6 March 1868 …

… and even specimens. So many letters flowed in that Darwin had a habit of burning batches of old …

… 8000 still survive in the main repository of his papers, the Darwin Archive at Cambridge University …

… these also to his archive.
The researchers of the Darwin Correspondence Project based in …

… complete texts of more than 15,000 known surviving Darwin letters, wherever in the world they are …

… to the volumes of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin , the narrative of his life as …

Summary

The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of extraordinary activity and productivity in which he became recognised as a naturalist of outstanding ability, as an author and editor, and as a professional…

Matches: 28 hits

… The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one …

… a family
Busy as he was with scientific activities, Darwin found time to re-establish family …

… close contact. In November 1838, two years after his return, Darwin became engaged to his cousin, …

… daughter, Anne Elizabeth, moved to Down House in Kent, where Darwin was to spend the rest of his …

… his greatest theoretical achievement, the most important of Darwin’s activities during the years …

… identifications of his bird and fossil mammal specimens, Darwin arrived at the daring and momentous …

… in species. With this new theoretical point of departure Darwin continued to make notes and explore …

… present in the version of 1859.
Young author
Darwin’s investigation of the species …

… the Beagle had returned to England, news of some of Darwin’s findings had been spread by the …

… great excitement. The fuller account of the voyage and Darwin’s discoveries was therefore eagerly …

… suitable categories for individual experts to work upon, Darwin applied himself to the revision of …

… of the surveying voyage of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle. Darwin’s volume bore the title Journal …

… visited by H.M.S. Beagle . Also in November 1837, Darwin read the fourth of a series of papers to …

… to the Society of 9 March 1838), had been developed by Darwin from a suggestion made by his uncle, …

… Sedgwick, [after 15 May 1838] ).
The new research Darwin undertook after 1837 was an …

… time, the parallel terraces, or ‘roads’, of Glen Roy. Darwin had seen similar formations on the …

Summary

The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but he broadened his continuing investigations into the nature and origin of species. Far from being a recluse, Darwin was at the heart of British scientific society,…

Matches: 26 hits

… results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but throughout these …

… species and varieties. In contrast to the received image of Darwin as a recluse in Down, the letters …

… Down House was altered and extended to accommodate Darwin’s growing family and the many relatives …

… The geological publications
In these years, Darwin published two books on geology, Volcanic …

… papers for all these organisations. Between 1844 and 1846 Darwin himself wrote ten papers, six of …

Summary

What did Darwin really believe about God? the Christian revelation? the implications of his theory of evolution for religious faith? These questions were asked again and again in the years following the publication of Origin of species (1859). They are…

Matches: 26 hits

… What did Darwin really believe about God? the Christian revelation? the implications of …

… rhetoric of crusading secularists, many of whom take Darwin as an icon.
But Darwin was very …

… Letters became an important medium through which Darwin’s readers sought to draw him out on matters …

… the religious implications of his work. Letters written to Darwin by persons unknown to him became …

… own.
Mary Boole’s letter
In December 1866 Darwin received a letter from Mary Boole, a …

… See the letter
Boole, like a number of Darwin’s readers, found a way of reconciling the …

… with some form of religious belief. But when Boole asks Darwin about specific points of belief, such …

… See the letter
In his response to Boole, Darwin implies that certain questions are beyond …

… Science, or by the so called “inner consciousness”’. Darwin does not dismiss different forms of …

… such territory in this letter to a stranger.
Emma Darwin
In what is perhaps …

… mind.
See the letter
In this letter, Darwin is quite clear that he has never …

… he says, is often in a state of flux.
What did Darwin mean by the term “agnostic”? The word …

… about questions such as the existence and nature of God. For Darwin, it also seems to imply that …

… be answered by science, and other questions that can not. Darwin had made this point in his response …

… their engagement in 1838, we find an early expression of Darwin’s religious doubts.
Darwin’s …

… with you.
See the letter
We know from Darwin’s scientific notebooks from this …

… these differences to be shared.
The tendency amongst Darwin scholars has been to assume that …

… part, sustained their marriage. If not deeply religious, Darwin was at least not disrespectful to …

… and wifely devotion have appeared only as a background to Darwin’s own life and intellectual …

… was another important religious tradition in the Darwin and Wedgwood families. Josiah Wedgwood, who …

… the Darwins and Wedgwoods, together in the first place. Darwin had attended a Unitarian school in …

… writer Frances Power Cobbe. All were regular guests of Darwin’s brother Erasmus, and of Emma’s …

… only to recite the liturgy. But we know, from Francis Darwin’s comments, that Emma used to make the …

… Emma’s Bible also contains some annotations by Darwin. These indicate a critical reading of …

… approaches to the text.
They also show that Darwin looked to the Bible as a guide to moral …

… you do not consider your opinion as formed’.
As Darwin would later reveal to Fordyce and …

Summary

In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…

Matches: 28 hits

… On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s advice writing …

… more for the sake of priority than anything else—Darwin was reluctant to squeeze his expansive …

… Natural selection .
Determined as he was to publish, Darwin nevertheless still felt cautious …

… specialist in Madeiran entomology, Thomas Vernon Wollaston. Darwin also came to rely on the caustic …

… in London.
Natural Selection
Not all of Darwin’s manuscript on species has been …

… of pigeons, poultry, and other domesticated animals. As Darwin explained to Lyell, his studies, …

… can
William Bernhard Tegetmeier continued to help Darwin acquire much of the material for …

Summary

Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and…

Matches: 25 hits

… Species theory
In November 1845, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend and confidant Joseph …

… and Fossil Cirripedia (1851, 1854).
What led Darwin to engage in this work when he was …

… group. Light is shed on the close relationship between Darwin’s systematic descriptive work and the …

… often frustrating taxonomical maze. Throughout these years, Darwin was also struggling with a …

Summary

'As for Mr Darwin, he is entirely fascinating…' In October 1868 Jane Gray and her husband spent several days as guests of the Darwins, and Jane wrote a charming account of the visit in a sixteen-page letter to her sister. She described Charles…

Matches: 25 hits

… As for Mr Darwin, he is entirely fascinating…
Darwin often discouraged would-be …

… her sister, Susan Loring. She described Charles and Emma Darwin, their daughter Henrietta, Down …

… on—
Since a severe attack of illness, Mr. Darwin sits on an easy chair raised very high, …

… and grounds
Tuesday I had a little walk with Mrs. Darwin round their grounds— The house …

… easy chairs of all shapes & kinds, from Mr. Darwin’s great throne, to “the latest instrument of …

… After breakfast there were prayers in the drawing-room, Mrs. Darwin leading the services— Then some …

Summary

The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child,…

Matches: 21 hits

… letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The …

… life but I trust happy
The anguish felt by Darwin is painfully expressed in letters …

… speak of her again. Yet the family gradually recovered, Darwin’s monographs were printed, and Darwin …

… to the cirripedes. Before turning to his species work, Darwin somewhat ruefully recorded in his …

… monographs by natural history societies, though welcomed by Darwin, did not run smoothly. …

… the Correspondence describes the major achievements of Darwin’s cirripede work as a whole and …

… societies, which were supported by subscriptions, was that Darwin’s volumes were not publicly …

… in Germany at the forefront of work in invertebrate zoology, Darwin began a correspondence with …

… provided the foundations for a relationship with Darwin that soon developed into a valued friendship …

… April 1854, when his cirripede study was drawing to a close, Darwin re-entered London scientific …

… with lots of claret is what I want
Perhaps Darwin’s decision to take a more active …

… to substantiate it is manifest in the correspondence. Darwin’s friends and colleagues were …

… outspoken young naturalists like Huxley, reacted eagerly to Darwin’s suggestions, although not …

… for the geographical distribution of animals and plants. Darwin began a series of researches on the …

… with the effects of known changes in climate and geology. Darwin boldly rejected the popular idea of …

… Some of the most interesting letters in this volume set out Darwin’s practical researches and …

… Variation and extinction
The other main focus of Darwin’s research centred on determining the …

… seeds and bees
An interest in variation naturally led Darwin to study the works of plant …

… views concerning decreased fertility of hybrids, Darwin began in the spring of 1855 a series of …

… a subject to which he returned in later years.
Darwin also undertook experiments relating to …

… study, like another on sensitive plants, was an attempt by Darwin to ‘break the constitution of …

Summary

Darwin experienced his first earthquake in 1834, but it was a few months later that he was really confronted with their power. Travelling north along the coast of Chile, Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, were confronted with a series of…

Matches: 10 hits

… in only one little earthquake having happened
Darwin to his sister Catherine, 8 November …

… with their power. Travelling north along the coast of Chile, Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of …

… section of the west coast was shaken by an earthquake. Darwin was in Valdivia where the damage was …

… wreaked in the towns and villages that made an impression; Darwin and FitzRoy also noticed the small …

… of the land at Concepción had risen in altitude. Darwin, pondering a possible connection between …

… to conceive a grand geological theory. Travelling inland, Darwin concluded that all these separate …

… shock waves from a single subterranean event.
Darwin had explored the Cordilleras from the …

… violent natural events, fossilised trees and other evidence, Darwin was attempting to visualise the …

… and these are amongst the most visually striking objects of Darwin’s surviving papers from the …

… South America and crossing back half way round the world, Darwin started to apply this theory on a …

Summary

Darwin played an important role in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. Public debate was sparked when the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought an unsuccessful prosecution against a French physiologist who…

Matches: 25 hits

… Darwin played an important role in the controversy over vivisection that broke …

… on live animals in Britain.
In December 1874, Darwin was asked to sign a memorial by the …

… draft legislation that would protect animals from suffering. Darwin was sympathetic to the cause, …

… (letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January [1875] ). Darwin also worried that any bill passed by a …

… to T. H. Huxley, 14 January 1875 ).
In the event, Darwin became closely involved with the …

… for assistance in preparing a bill for Parliament.
Darwin almost never involved himself in …

… recent research on insectivorous plants. Indeed, some of Darwin’s plant experiments, such as …

… and because it failed to mention anaesthetics.
Darwin’s indebtedness and allegiance to …

… to put an end to any suffering before his eyes’.
Darwin was clearly disturbed by the prospect …

… to E. R. Lankester, 22 March [1871] ). In the same year, Darwin had published Descent of man , …

… some animals possessed social sympathies akin to conscience. Darwin even described an animal …

… 1: 40).
Vivisection was a sensitive subject within Darwin’s family. In his letter of 14 …

… of a network of reformers and philanthropists that included Darwin’s brother, Erasmus, and his …

… of course) or I might get one or two’ (letter from Emma Darwin to F. P. Cobbe, 14 January [1875] …